Reactivity of anti-human rotavirus VP4 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies with animal rotaviruses and with unusual human rotaviruses having different P and G serotypes.

The reactivity of five anti-human rotavirus VP4 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (N-mAb) with 20 animal rotavirus strains and three unusual human rotavirus (HRV) strains was investigated. Five N-mAb prepared previously by the immunization of mice with HRV were employed in this study. They were found to neutralize HRV belonging to P types 4, 6 and 8, which were designated according to P (or VP4) type nomenclature proposed by Estes and Cohen (1989). A porcine rotavirus strain Gottfried was reactive with four of the five mAb both in neutralization tests and in ELISA. However, no other animal rotaviruses were neutralized by any of the mAb. Fourteen animal strains were reactive with only one or two mAb in ELISA, and five animal strains were inactive with all. These results indicate that neutralization epitopes on VP4 are serologically considerably different between HRV (except for unusual Indonesian strains 57M and 69M) and animal rotaviruses (except for porcine rotavirus strain Gottfried).